


shaky hands

by hyoidbone



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-28
Updated: 2015-04-28
Packaged: 2018-03-26 03:22:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3835108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyoidbone/pseuds/hyoidbone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clarke doesn't have the best start to her new job.</p>
            </blockquote>





	shaky hands

**Author's Note:**

  * For [azkabanter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/azkabanter/gifts).



"Come on, Griffin, your mom's a surgeon and you're an artist, where are your steady hands?"

"Piss off, Octavia, it's my second day."

Octavia rolls her eyes and Clarke reaches for two plates. Her friend zips off to deliver food and she struggles juggling the two plates she has but the cook gives her a glare and she's already worried about losing her job by not being up to speed. Carefully, she scoots one plate up the length of her arm and steadies herself, grabbing a third and turning around. 

"I've got this," she says quietly to herself and begins her trip to the other side of the restaurant. The plate on her arm wobbles and she wants to turn back, but she's halfway there and she takes a long breath to steady herself. She tries to remember Octavia's advice about not looking at the plates as she walks, that focusing on them too hard will make it worse, but the confidence isn't there and she's constantly looking down at her cargo. 

What she doesn't see, and she'll later hear Octavia some variation of I told you so, is one of the other servers turning around with her own plate of food. She doesn't hear the arguing of the table with the girl. She does hear a sudden gasp and some jumble of words she can't understand while she watches her own plates crash between them. Potatoes and salad dressing smear all over the front of her shirt and steak sauce covers the dark haired girl. 

"Oh my god," Clarke stammers and she can feel the anger coming out of Lexa's glare--that's her name, right? Clarke immediately hits the ground to pick up the mess of food and shattered plates, ignoring the patrons and Lexa turning around to apologize to the customers. She tries to quickly get the mess up, slicing her finger on a sharp piece of glass in the meantime. 

"Are you okay?" Lexa asks and Clarke feels the strain on her lips, that that is the last question Lexa cares to answer but the eyes of people trying to enjoy their dinners are on them and they listen, waiting for someone to yell at the clumsy employee that just can't get her shit together. 

"Yeah, yeah, I just... I need a bandaid," she begins, holding her finger in one hand and leaning back on her heels. Two busboys stop by to help. "And a new shirt."

"Come on," Lexa helps Clarke to her feet and Clarke looks around. Octavia noticed but she's trying not to look, not to show her frustration. She'll get an earful later but right now she can't focus on that. 

"I don't have another shirt."

"I have one."

Clarke is quiet as they wade through the crowd, moving through a door that reads Employees Only, and to a row of lockers for their things. Clarke doesn't have one yet. 

"Here," Lexa hands out a white tee shirt and pulls a second one for herself. Clarke is quick to pull her dirty shirt over her head and work on getting the other. "We have a... there's..." she stammers but it doesn't faze Clarke though and she smiles. It's a tight squeeze, Lexa a little more slender than Clarke, but at least her shift if over in an hour. 

"Bandaid?" Clarke asks and she turns to look behind her, the cooks and cleaners about their business but Lexa looks a little lost suddenly. 

"Uh, yeah. Right."

Clarke washed and dried her hands by the time Lexa returns, an opened bandage held out and she wraps it around her finger. 

"I'm really sorry I ran into you," Clarke confesses with a tug of her lips, her hands gripping the end of her shirt and tugging it down, the shirt a size too small and riding up her torso. Lexa brushes it off, cheeks reddened and flustered, and straightens up as Octavia comes around the corner. 

"Griffin, so help me if I lose my job because of you."

"It was my fault, O, chill," Lexa defends and Clarke snaps her attention to the dark haired woman. Octavia looks between them, suspicion in her eyes as she slowly backs off. 

"Fine, fine, just get the orders back in and apologize to your tables."

They both nod their head and when Octavia disappears, they can't help but laugh. 

"She takes this way too seriously."

"You should see her at home."

"Wait, she's your roommate?"

Clarke nods and rolls her eyes dramatically. 

"Poor you," Lexa tells her and laughs again, leaving Clarke behind to fix her miss. 

"Yeah, poor me," she repeats with a smile and follows behind her new friend.


End file.
